The paganization of Christmas
Monday, December 22, 2025
*Fr. Eduardo Barrios, SJ
The Christian solemnity of Christmas will arrive once again with unfailing punctuality on December 25. In 2025, it will fall on a Thursday. The day of the month is fixed, but not the day of the week.
Since October, even before Halloween, stores have been offering supposedly Christmas-themed items. However, there is no reference to the Christ Child or his holy court, consisting primarily of Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary, along with other secondary - but by no means unimportant - figures, such as the shepherds and the visitors from the East who came to Bethlehem following a star.
Stores offer Christmas items such as snowmen, reindeer-drawn sleighs, and a series of winter themes that are completely foreign to our hot climate. Artificial trees, decked out with multicolored balls, garlands, and twinkling lights, are also plentiful. Certain foods, such as Spanish nougat and imported fruits, are regarded as traditional Christmas items.
Paganization affects all religious celebrations. Consider, for example, the fourth Thursday in November, Thanksgiving Day. Many families forget to offer a prayer of gratitude, instead focusing on preparing a menu remotely inspired by what the European settlers who arrived in America on the Mayflower, shared with the indigenous people. The highlight of that menu is roasted turkey.
The most important celebration for Christians is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, or Easter. However, commerce makes no reference to the Risen Christ, but rather to elaborately painted eggs known as Easter eggs and passes off bland little bunnies as symbols of the holiday.
Of the religious celebration in December, we can say that it is a liturgical season that lasts less than three weeks. It begins on December 25, continues with Epiphany, and ends with the Baptism of the Lord.
To make it easier for Catholics to participate in the Christmas solemnity, there are four different Masses on Christmas Day: The Vigil Mass, the Midnight Mass, Mass at Dawn and the Mass during the Day. Each of them has different prayers and readings.
The Liturgy’s importance lies in the fact that it actualizes what is being celebrated. In a very real sense, the mystery being celebrated becomes present.
The Liturgy explains the religious significance of Christmas through a variety of prefaces. The Missal includes three Christmas prefaces, one for Epiphany and another for the Baptism of the Lord. These prayers exalt the divine pedagogy of using the visible - Jesus Christ as a man - to reveal the invisible: His divinity. They also emphasize that the eternal Son assumed the weakness of our mortal nature to make us partakers in his immortal life.
Prioritizing Christmas as a religious celebration does not exclude decorations such as a wreath on the door or a Christmas tree, as long as the Nativity scene is not missing. Nativity scenes are mainly inspired by the account of Saint Luke (2:1-20), a narrative that abounds in historical figures such as Augustus, Quirinius, Joseph, Mary, and the shepherds. There are also geographical references to Nazareth and Bethlehem. In the current circumstances facing humanity, the angels invite us to pray for peace when they sing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will." (v. 14)
It is not at odds with the sacredness of Christmas to enjoy special foods and drinks. Just as families prepare a more elaborate menu for birthdays, the great Christian family also eats and drinks as richly as possible to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ.
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